A Blog about different types of living beings ranging from exotic animals & interesting creatures to rare insects, naughty reptiles and large mammals, etc. - along with anything else that relates to nature, gardening...

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Biostone: Biological Concrete made from sand, bacteria, and urine

Now here is an interesting biological product that could eventually be
used to replace standard concrete while lowering our CO2 emissions.
Yeah, cement production is not the most environmentally friendly thing
in the world, to say the least. Anyway, the product is called "biostone"
and it plans on putting your urine to better use; ha! The combination
of this biological concrete uses sand, bacteria, and urine.

The procedure for creating this biostone/biological concrete involves
filling a mold (that has the desired shape of the product) with sand
before pumping a bacteria solution of bascillus pasterurii into the
mold. From this point, it will set overnight. On the next day, a
solution of urea, calcium chloride and nutrient broth is then pumped
into the mold. As was stated on the actual page I just read: "The
bacteria uses the urea as energy to absorb the calcium chloride and
convert it into calcium carbonate, a cement-like mixture that binds the
sand together within the mold." You can read more about this, here: www.gizmag.com/dupe-sand-urine-bacteria-concrete-machine/30804/

Of course, this particular method would not interest the common consumer
nor would they probably like the idea of buying products that are made
from urine and bacteria. LOL! On a good note, this is a step in the
right direction since the idea behind this biological concrete/biostone
can be expanded upon and hopefully be used later on to build houses,
etc., and make industrial manufacturing more environmentally friendly
and sustainable. I just thought this was an interesting advancement
nonetheless and decided to share these tidbits of info today; cheers!

Image Credit: My own photo of a nearby rocky terrain.

---End of Post "Biostone: Biological Concrete made from sand, bacteria, and urine"